Blackberry Q10

The Blackberry Q10 may be one of the last smartphones to offer a physical keyboard. Most manufacturers have digitized their keyboards in favor of much larger screens, and our consumer testers seem to have jumped on the bandwagon. Still, plenty of people enjoy the tactile feedback of physical keys. If they are a must for you, then the Blackberry Q10 is your only choice for a current generation smartphone.

Thankfully, typing is tactile on the Blackberry Q10 and keys are contoured so your fingers can easy discern between them. The Q10 slips easily into your pocket, and its soft-touch back feels great while repelling fingerprints. Battery life was also among the best we tested as well, lasting 12 hours of video streaming on its modest 3.1-inch screen.

Unfortunately, the Q10's modest screen was what brought it the most criticism from our consumer testers, who much preferred consuming media on a larger display. The phone's 8-megapixel camera also delivered poor low light performance when compared to many phones of comparable price.

Bottom Line: If you're dead set on a physical keyboard for your phone, the Blackberry Q10 is the phone to get. Otherwise, there is much to be desired in a full-fledged smartphone for viewing media and using apps.

Availability: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon

*All pricing based on a 2-year carrier contract at press time, except the unlocked Nexus 4, Nexus 5, and ZTE Grand S.

**Battery life is based off of hours of video streaming at default brightness settings, rounded to the nearest hour. All phones were tested in our lab under the same conditions. Phones were set to airplane mode with Wifi enabled.

Reviewed: April 2014

Price When Reviewed: $99.00 –$199

Pros

Top rated battery life

Good speaker quality

Very portable

Cons

Small display

Subpar camera quality

Subpar performance – has a somewhat dated processor and takes over a minute to turn on

Physical keyboard – consumers have become accustomed to onscreen typing

Small screen difficult to read on

Unintuitive to navigate

Blackberry app store is limited compared to Apple and Google Play stores